The Masked Face and two other stories: Novel

’What is right? What is wrong?’ asks Rohini in The Masked Face. ’We are creatures of circumstances.’ Malini, her elder sister, rages at her insensitivity to the feelings of those she hurts by her action. It is the sense of values that differ from person to person whether it is among the urban, educated women in Delhi who imagine that they are truly modern or among the God-fearing, rural women, in Shadow Play, who have assembled at a temple village, Gunaseelam to cure their mentally affected daughters, believing the Lord would cure them, and reluctant to ask the question ’what is right?’ It is a question that troubles Malathi, daughter of a gentle Gandhian, in The Womb, who knows nothing but to love - never considers the wealth of her husband as something of value and unable to wear a mask. It is a world that Malini, Paatti at the choultry of Gunaseelam, and Malathi - who is shocked at the one unforgivable question her husband asks - are unable to comprehend. All the characters, young and old in the three stories try to navigate their lives amidst the backdrop of generational trauma, relationships, sense of values and betrayals and tragedies, the masks everyone wears in a changing society that is still governed by patriarchy. It is a realization that comes at last, ’We are creators of circumstances.’